


The Hufflepuffiest of Hufflepuffs

by afinch



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Best Friends Forever, Gen, Healing, immediatelyish post-war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/afinch
Summary: Ernie writes a book, after the war, of his two best friends, the little orphan girl, and boy who lost his mind."That's not how it happened!"Ernie writes a book, after the war, of his two best friends, and his own magnitudes of guilt of having survived so easily."That's not quite what happened, but better."Ernie attempts to write a book about the war and how it impacted him, but his two best friends keep interrupting his attempts to dramatize the perfectly legal events while leaving out any and all references to anything illegal, because there are reputations to uphold, and the MacMillans are a good, honest, pureblood dynasty."I mean, you did save our families. You'd think you wouldn't be so proud to tell the world that."Ernie gives up and basically lets his two best friends write the story. The one about him. And the war. And how it impacted him."You forgot to add 'And his life of unrestricted privilege' at the end."Ernie is no longer available for comment.





	The Hufflepuffiest of Hufflepuffs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/gifts).



_With the Battle over and the weary soldiers finally heading home, Ernie finally had time to think, for the first time in years. The castle burned steadily behind him; the village of Hogsmeade heavy with grief even in their victory. It was hardly fair, any of it. He already had everything he could ever want. And after the war, looking at the childhoods of his two friends, he couldn't help but feel bitter that of course he'd come out on top. He and his family were unscathed entirely. If he really wanted, he could find a Floo, head home, and put the whole thing behind him. His friends could not say the same. Hannah had lost her family and Justin had lost his mind. How had it come to this?_

"Except that's not how it happened," Justin said. "Come off it. You're writing this thing like it's the start of some human interest piece."

"It is a human interest piece," Ernie defended himself. "Very much so. When Father was asked to do this - when we were asked to do this - were told to make it as dramatic as possible, because drama sells. I can't just write what really happened."

"I didn't lose my mind," Justin said firmly. He was leaning back in his chair at Ernie's large home. The chair was large as well, and looked to be swallowing him whole. He was still skinny - skinnier than he should have been - from the war. "Look, you want to tell a dramatic tell, why not tell of how you and Hannah help-"

But Ernie was shaking his head, "The whole point of the story is that we acted within the laws, whatever the laws were, to resist and help out during the war. I can't write that I secretly broke the laws - they'll pull the book deal for sure."

Justin wanted to refute this, but it was hard. Even after the war, some of the old laws had taken their time to be rescinded, and the scars that stood from naming a significant minority of the population sub-human would stand for some time. There were many who had resisted, but many more who had still gone to work, supported their government, and stayed always within the bounds of the law.

"There is such a thing as too loyal," Justin pointed out. "You don't owe it to your father and you don't owe it to a government that no longer exists."

"I would counter, dear friend, that I owe it to the idea of a free and fair government."

"What do you owe to your friends?"

The question had come, not from Justin, but from Hannah, who was in the doorway, looking impatient. 

"And what is the point of telling me to come in through the East Floo, if you're all the way over here in the South parlor? I got lost by the bathrooms again, or I would have been here sooner. What did I miss?"

* * *

_Ernie stood on the precipice. The war was over yes, and in such a dramatic fashion, but all the hard choices didn't evaporate the way their enemies had. Ernie was on the precipice of deciding what sort of man he wanted to become. He could turn left, enter the village, find a way home. Or he could turn right, and seek out information about his two friends. Torn by loyalty to family and friendship, Ernie hesitated._

"That's not how it happened _either_!" protested Justin, but Hannah looked thoughtful.

"I like it," she said, firmly. She had kicked off her shoes and was lying with Ernie on the sofa, her head on the sofa edge, her feet just missing Ernie's robes. "It gives you a hook. Sets the mood for the story, really. A conflict that's not about the conflict we just had. One in which the lines aren't between good and evil. Lines between what we owe to each other instead. Probably a lot parables in the story that people nowadays will need to read.

Justin rolled his eyes, "You missed the first bit where he said I lost my mind."

Hannah kicked at Ernie, though not hard, "You did not. That's mean. Did you call me the little orphan girl too, for max impact?"

Justin didn't even try to hide his laugh. Ernie looked chagrined. 

"Well, now it's fixed," Ernie said, somewhat haughtily. He sniffed, "Even if I had to make it a little more about you."

Justin opened his mouth to protest, but Hannah was right there, her voice soothing. "Now, Ernie, you still get to be the main character in the story. It still can be all about you and your difficult choices and how hard it all was for you. So terrible, your privilege guilting you."

Ernie looked mollified when Hannah started speaking, but by the end, he could tell Hannah was having one on him. 

"Alright!" he said, and he looked angry enough that both Justin and Hannah looked at each other guiltily. His face shifted, and his tone shifted with it, "You know, you _know_ that I would have-"

"That you did," Justin interrupted quickly. "You did. You did so much more than you needed to. You're just too proud to tell _that_ story."

"You made sure my mother's family was safe," Hannah said, quietly. "That was a big risk, hiding them here in your house like that. People who weren't even ma- I mean they're Mug- you know what I'm trying to say." She twisted her hands as she spoke, still emotional about what Ernie had done for her mother's family. 

Justin chimed back in, "Oi, and I know you'd have hidden me, if you'd had the chance to. Your quick thinking on the family trees helped though. Anne was much appreciative. As am I. Only a second year she wouldn't have been so lucky at trial. I'm sure if I hadn't all been the same year as Harry, it would hav- I wouldn't have-" He broke off and shrugged, better at hiding it than Hannah was. "It was time for a new wand anyway, and I'm lucky that's all they took."

"So you'll be okay, then, when I write of hearing the official government news, the list of names every night, the taunts from the others as they recognized surnames, and how I'd go to the dorms at night unable to sleep, because all I'd dream about was your name coming up on the list?" Ernie asked. He wasn't boastful about this. He looked almost embarrassed in light of what his friends had been through. "It's not the same as-"

Hannah sat up, "Oh, no, this is good. Don't you think, Justin?" And she gave him a sweet smile. He nodded back, a little hesitant. He wanted to hear what Hannah was thinking. "Say that. Just like you just said it now. Then you can talk about the slow horror of how everything seemed so far away, like it could never touch you at all, the war was just someone else's memory, and the students tortured were just troublemakers. How easy it was to try desperately to pretend like it was all normal and you'd get out okay. And then you heard the name of your mother and suddenly the war was right there in your House, in your room, taking your family, and it was so bitterly unfair."

The tears were dripping down her face. Hannah had never learned the art that some girls do of crying gracefully in public even when they are deeply upset. She wiped her nose on the corner of her robe as both of them offered her a pocket square. She shook them both off and dabbed her eyes with her robes as well. 

"Anyway," she said, trying to recover. "That's what you write. And everyone who sat there and wasn't breaking any laws or doing whatever they could to rescue the people they claimed to care about can get a dose of guilt, because we all heard names of someone we know. Whether we went to school with them, or worked with them, or lived next to them."

Justin nodded and spoke quietly, "Yes. All those names being called were names we knew, and nobody cared if they were going to their deaths, so long as it wasn't happening to them. Add that, too." Justin used his pocket square to dab his own eyes, briefly, before glaring at Ernie proudly. 

Ernie looked at both his friends, horrified. "I didn't -"

But he couldn't finish. The three looked at each other in cold, long silence.

* * *

_The easy choice was to go home, and apologize for disobeying his father. The easy choice was to go home, fall on his mother in relief, and gain sympathy for what he had been through. The war was over, and Ernie had lost absolutely nothing of significance; going home and pretending he had was easy. But the last year at a school taken effectively hostage, had taught Ernie that easy choices weren't the best choices. The hard choice, the choice Ernie found himself making, was towards his friends, friends who had not been blessed by the circumstance of their births so well as Ernie had. Both had lost their families, in different ways. Neither had made an easy choice for almost a year. At the very least, Ernie owed it to them to unflinchingly listen, to offer his shoulder to cry on, and to find a way forward, all together. He set off in the opposite direction of the village, headed for the last place he'd heard Justin might be._

"Again," Justin said. "That is not how it happened at all, but I like it. I think Hannah's right. This is the way you do it. I like how you threw in that it was about easy choices - fits Hannah's idea of guilting the point home."

Hannah rolled her eyes at Justin, "Come on, you can't have him say that the safest place for you was with a gay bartender. And for some of those purebloods, with their half-baked notions of tradition masquerading as fidelity, they'd be horrified."

"Unsympathetic character," Ernie said. "I can't have those. So you both are perfectly tragic, I'm afraid."

Hannah snorted at this, "Perfectly Tragic. I love it. If I ever make it through the Healer program and get to invent a cure for anything, I'm calling it Perfectly Tragic."

Justin shook his head, "No. I think that's the title of the thing. Think of it. Everyone reading it will think it applies to _them_ , through Ernie. The irony will be lost on some, but for most, it'll hit right close to home once they realize what the book is really about."

"I was going to call it A Simple Chance of Fate," Ernie offered, offhandedly. "Seeing as you two are basically writing the thing right now anyway, I suppose I'll leave that up to you, too."

"You could," Justin suggested, a wry smile on his face, "call it The Underground Chocolate Frog Ring That Threatened to End All Cup Chances."

Both Ernie and Hannah beamed at this. 

"That was what, third year? Or was it fourth? Is it terrible I can't remember?" Hannah said.

"Third," Justin said firmly. "As fourth is when we had all that attention from the Cup. We'd never have gotten away with it as long as we did in third, if it had been in fourth."

"Fourth is when we almost all stopped being friends over the Ball," Ernie said, looking chagrined. "And you thought I had a thing for Hannah and were weirdly jealous of it."

Justin laughed, "How was I to know you two were related? Not that it made it any better, getting offended over the idea of my liking Hannah."

The two young men looked at each other, their personal pride still scratching at the surface of this long-resolved conflict.

"I'm just glad I have two male friends who aren't going to peck each other's eyes out over their affection for me," Hannah said, waving her arms in an effort to diffuse the sitaution. "No, instead my two male friends will peck each other's eyes out over the thought of the other of them having any affection for me."

"There are worse things," Justin said. "I could be in love with Ernie. Wouldn't _that_ make a compelling story. Sex sells, you know."

Ernie looked horrified at this, "I do want to marry someday, Justin! And have lots of little MacMillian children running around this manner. You can come visit. Uncle Justin and Uncle Justin's Boyfriend."

"Oh, does that make me Auntie Hannah?" Hannah said, looking disgusted. "Please, no. I don't want to be Auntie Hannah. Nor Mommy Hannah, really. Odds of finding a mate who doesn't also want children?"

Justin grinned at this, "No, Hannah, this means you get to spoil Ernie's kids rotten in all the _bad_ ways."

"Turnabout's fair play!" Ernie said quickly. 

"First I've got to find a bloke who _wants_ kids. Probably going to be a Muggle, if I'm being serious about it. Too much bad blood for me to-"

He stopped. They had lasted longer this time, not bringing up their scars from the war. Nearly a few minutes this time. Ernie had stiffened as well, and Hannah was back lying on the sofa, her foot tensed against Ernie's thigh. 

"Yes, probably not the light-hearted title," Justin said, clearing his throat. "Wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that we've put this behind us."

"Nine generations," Ernie said quietly. "I can trace my family back nine wholly pureblood generations. Is the only way to move past to stop the counting?"

"Yes," said both Hannah and Justin immediately. 

"I could count back, too," Hannah reminded him. "My father could, until he broke it. He called it saving himself. He also said something interesting. He said - he said that it's okay if you only save one person and that it's okay if that one person is you. And that you can't save everyone until you've saved yourself first. I think that's the only reason I didn't give in to any despair during the war. I only had to save myself, and that was okay. You only had to save yourself too, and you did it, and then you saved others. You shouldn't feel so guilty about it."

Ernie looked moved by this. "That's … that's the nicest thing you've said to me since your mother-"

She waved a hand at him, "Well, you can't use it for the book. That's mine and it belongs to me, and I shared it now. I didn't give it to you."

"Esto perpetua is the old motto of Eton," Justin said. "But you don't want that. May it last forever."

"I think I'll take it for our friendship," Ernie said. "If you'll both permit me."

Justin nodded, looking pleased, but Hannah frowned. 

"No. Not unless you end the book properly, with a note of hope and giving the two of us credit where it's due."

Ernie didn't look surprised by this. "I think I can manage something that will gain your approval."

* * *

_The dust took weeks to settle. Metaphorically, of course, as the fires had been quenched at the castle within days. At the start of the term, all Hogwarts students would repeat the year. Last year was the year that never was. Ernie sat alone on the train, his carriage once again empty, but this time wholly by the choice of his two closest friends.Forgiveness for Ernie was the final easy choice he could make. His friends, too-used to the hard path, found walking with Ernie and the classmates who had done nothing, too difficult to manage._

_Hannah said she'd find another way to chase her passions. She had always wanted to try cooking, and Tom needed the help. That was her easy choice. Justin had lost his second and seventh years to the castle, his blood repelled by its walls. He wasn't going to give the castle another year of his life to steal. He had always wanted to meet other Wizards, from far away places, where blood quantum wasn't the law of the land. For him too, this was an easy choice._

_They would come back to Ernie's life when he would make the hard choice to chase after them. Which he did, immediately upon the train's arrival at Hogsmeade. One year without them had been one year too many. The road ahead might be be full of hard choices, but as long as Ernie had them to remind him of how lucky he was, he would be just fine._

"Oh, Ernie."  
"It's perfect."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> That's not how it happened" is my mantra for any 'based on a true story' movies, so I based the theme of the fic around that idea. Everyone would have written a book, or been asked to write a book, and a side-character trying to make it as human interest as possible because all the main characters are writing the juicy books appealed to me.


End file.
